Cabinet secretary Dame Antonia Romeo has said she expects new PM Andy Burnham’s devolution drive to mean that moving between departments and the wider public sector will be a routine fact of life for civil servants.
Romeo’s comments came in a social-media post following the publication of the government’s Rewiring the State policy paper, which contains a range of measures expected to make the civil service “smaller and more strategic”.
Writing on LinkedIn, Romeo said the devolution push – which aims to place more decision-making power in the hands of regional mayors – represents “an exciting opportunity” for the civil service.
“As civil servants, we joined to make a positive difference for people and communities across the country, and that purpose and determination motivates us every day,” she said. “Devolution means going even further: moving power and decision making out of central government and right into the communities we serve, ensuring that decisions are taken closer than ever before to the places where people live and work.”
Romeo is currently leading a review of Whitehall that will “examine the full range of activities undertaken by the civil service”, including its “size, shape, and structure”.
The review was commissioned by former PM Keir Starmer and is due to conclude next summer. However, No.10 says Burnham and Romeo have agreed that Rewiring the State will “form a major part” of the end goal for the civil service’s future operating model.
In her LinkedIn post, Romeo said that moving power closer to communities is “an important part” of the vision for the civil service of the future and “will create new opportunities to have a direct positive impact” across the country.
“By embracing these opportunities, we will ensure the civil service can continue to deliver the services the public expects of us – fit for a modern and AI-powered future, removing the unnecessary barriers and bureaucracy that frustrate us all, and focused on delivering for citizens and the government,” Romeo said.
“For civil servants, we will build new career paths, so that moving between central government and the wider public sector becomes the norm. We will continue to modernise while preserving the best traditions of the impartial civil service.”
Rewiring the State pledges reforms to business rates and income tax, allowing regional mayors to retain more of those revenues locally – as part of moving towards a funding system that rewards local growth.
Mayors are also in line for increased powers in relation to housing, transport and skills. Part of that will involve a “devolving by default” process of moving decisions that can be taken locally out of central government. Rewiring the State says “devolving by default” means that when policies or services are being designed or altered, secretaries of state will need to justify holding them at the level of central government.
A reappraisal of the work of arm’s-length bodies is due to take place in parallel, with a view to establishing what functions can be returned to departments or devolved to local areas.
Rewiring the State also has greater detail on Romeo’s theme of making moves between different parts of the public sector more widespread.
The seven-page document talks about the plans representing “an opportunity for the civil service to adapt and learn through greater interchange with regional and local government, becoming more porous and working together to deliver better outcomes for the citizens we serve”.
Rewiring the State pledges to “actively build new career paths between central government and the wider public sector” and says the National School for Government will “play an important part” in the process.
It says ministers will ensure that mayors and other local institutions will have the “necessary capability” to deliver on the additional powers they are being given by “transferring funding and resource from government where functions are devolved”.
The document adds: “This will be complemented by a programme of wider capacity and capability support from government. We will work with the sector to develop a blueprint for the capacity and capabilities strategic authorities need, and a strategy for delivering that blueprint. This will include ensuring strategic authorities have the right skills and expertise, a jointly designed leadership development offer, and an enhanced programme of secondments from central government.”